The Rise of Isabella Swan
by Origami Eyes
Summary: Aro wants Isabella's gift and possibly Isabella herself. The only reasonable course of action is to appear in Forks, offer her a deal with the devil, and some barely disguised flirting. Aro/Bella AU, post-New Moon.
1. Chapter 1

_**Author's Note: Welcome to the story, everybody. I've caught the Aro/Bella bug and the result is my first attempt at writing this pairing and fanfic in general. **_

_**So far, the M rating is just for safety but it will become necessary in future chapters. **_

_**Please read and review!**_

* * *

Aro paced the perimeter of the throne room, his cloak billowing majestically behind him. The noonday sun made his skin shimmer faintly. His eyes glowed a deep and unearthly red, identical in color to his ruby cravat. His hair, dark and straight, drew attention to the unnatural symmetry of his features.

The effect was impressive but Caius had seen it a thousand times too many. He raised his head lazily from his hand.

"What is the matter, brother?" he said. His tone was unconcerned.

Aro paused in his tracks, tensed theatrically and then waved his fingers in dismissal. A heavy silver ring caught the light and gleamed. "Nothing."

Caius snorted. Aro always put on a performance and there were no easy answers from him. "If you wanted to be left alone, you wouldn't be huffing dramatically right in front of me," he said.

His face set in a chastised expression, Aro returned to his throne and leaned in to look at the pale vampire on his left. "Edward Cullen's little mate is fascinating."

Caius grimaced. He remembered the human quite well. She had smelled flowery, like an explosion in a perfume store. She looked perpetually on the verge of tears. _Hopelessly ordinary_, he'd decided and he stood by that conclusion. "Her potential gift is interesting. Other than that, she is a standard whimpering mortal. In this case, _whimpering _is an accurate description not an insult."

"We frightened her," Aro said, as though that lessened her failings.

"Obviously," Caius agreed. "Is there a point you are trying to arrive at?"

"How long has it been since her visit?" Aro had asked that question almost daily for the past few weeks and he repeated it again as if it was completely novel.

"A month or so," the other vampire said, not bothering to be more specific.

Aro smiled, liking that answer. It was a nice, merciful amount of time for the Cullens to transform the human in their midst into a vampire. His expression split and changed into something more dangerous. "Long enough for her to be turned if the charming Edward had any intention of doing so, wouldn't you say?"

"Is a visit to Forks in order?" Caius said, tapping his fingers impatiently on the black armrest of his throne. He had waited for centuries to suppress the Cullen coven. It seemed anticlimactic somehow that one little human would motivate Aro out of his apathy.

"I'd think so," his brother agreed.

Businesslike, Caius stood up. "The regulars will be ready to travel in a few hours," he said, referring to Demetri, the twins and Felix. They were the most effective agents the Volturi had and they were so used to missions abroad that it took them no time at all to assemble.

"Oh, I'm going to attend to this personally," Aro said cheerfully. "I'll gather them myself."

Caius stiffened. A leader leaving Volterra signalled a state of emergency. If word got out that Aro was accompanying the guards on a mundane jaunt to America, the might of the Volturi would instantly be questioned.

"And why would that be?" he said cautiously.

Aro's answering laugh was breezy. "She's fascinating, remember?"

Caius rolled his eyes. "If you want a vacation, you can just say so."

"And have you mock my work ethic? I think not," he said playfully.

Internally, Caius hissed. He could tell that Aro was hiding something, but he also understood that demanding answers would not get him anywhere. It hadn't the last hundred times he'd tried it. "Enjoy your trip," he said instead.

"Are you sure you don't want to join me?" the other vampire sang, extending a welcoming hand.

"Yes."

"I hope Athenodora enjoys the sudden increase in your company," Aro said, naming the one person who could willingly separate Caius from his vengeance.

"I'm sure she will," Caius said mildly. He'd been happily devoted to his wife for two thousand years and his brother's teasing couldn't change that.

Aro made a face. "I have to pack. What does one wear to a dreadful rainy forest?"

"Bring an umbrella," Caius advised. "And get rid of the cloak."

"That's the first good suggestion I've heard from you in a decade." Aro grinned over his shoulder as he departed. "Give Marcus my regards. Try not to burn the place to the ground. I should return in a month."

Caius waved a weary goodbye.

* * *

Flying was one of the modern world's disappointments in Aro's opinion. He had expected air travel to be stately. Instead, the airplane's motor droned in his ears and the scenery unfolded so slowly that he was impatient with it after an hour. He prodded his luggage miserably. He didn't own any cheap paperbacks that could just be tossed into a briefcase, and his first editions were too precious to leave the library.

_Boredom_. Simply dreadful.

With nothing else to do, he looked back and observed the other passengers. Jane and Alec shared a pair of earbuds while watching something on a laptop perched on their knees. Aro could hear the tinny reverberations of dialogue coming from inside the cheap headphones. They looked like children caught in the odd moment of cooperation between sibling rivalries.

Strange little creatures, he thought fondly. But then, gifted vampires were always peculiar in some way. Demetri's restlessness was obvious. He tapped out rhythms with his foot when there was no music or found patterns where there were none. Heidi was blunt to the point of rudeness, as though her charming public demeanor exhausted her. Marcus, even in his grief, couldn't help playing matchmaker or councillor to every couple he encountered. Aro had come to expect and even welcome oddness that came with talent.

And that was why he had to get his hands on Isabella Swan.

The Cullens were sickeningly normal. Repressed, of course. Constantly acting. Taking a gifted vampire and forcing her to interact with humans, and go to high school and pretend to be a normal, suburban teenager would dampen her ability. _Such a waste_, he sighed to himself.

Among the Volturi, the girl would have a chance to explore her potential. Really, he was doing her a favor by taking her away from the banality of her current situation. How he was going to do that—well, he wasn't sure just yet. But he had his trusted guards, and if his plans truly went off the rails, Caius and the inevitable _I told you so_ were only a phone call away.

Pleased with his own beneficence, Aro leaned back into his chair and sighed contentedly.

* * *

The Volturi owned property in Seattle. The Volturi owned property everywhere. Aro's real estate purchasing policy was _you'll never know when it'll come in handy_.

This particular property was a mansion at the city limits. It was surrounded by trees, and large enough to be opulent without attracting undue attention. Aro decided to give the financial advisor who had bought this a large Christmas bonus, before remembering that he had eaten the man a few years ago, alas.

After allowing his guards an hour or so to fiddle with their luggage and explore their new home, he gathered them in the immaculate kitchen.

"My dear ones, have we all settled in?" he asked.

"Yes Master," Alec said politely. He'd hung all his clothes in the closet, and then done the same with Jane's. The most responsible member of the guard was twelve years old, Aro thought ruefully.

"Wonderful, wonderful," he said. "I know that this is a little more humble than we're used to, but it's only for a short while. Besides, you have this entire magnificent city to view."

"Will you join us, Master?" Jane wondered, rocking from her toes to her heels. She was so childish at times, he noted, unsure whether he found it endearing or frustrating.

"Perhaps later, darling," he said. "I have other business to attend to."

There was no reason to tell his guards that he intended to pay Isabella a visit. It was a foolish idea, rambling through woods at night to catch a glimpse of one human girl. Felix, at least, would be sensible enough to try and stop him. Aro justified his lack of caution with curiosity. The excuse rang a little false, even to him.

* * *

The house was non-descript. A peeling white two-story with a police car and an ancient truck out front. Everything about it gave off the air of effort with limited results, as though somebody worked very hard to keep it in this state of functional shabbiness. Aro grinned. It was always easiest to beguile people with humble beginnings.

From Edward's memories, Aro knew how to find Isabella's bedroom and how to enter it silently. The greased window hinges were a nice touch. At some later date he'd examine all of her belongings and try to catch some glimpses of her strange and quiet mind, but right now he wanted to see her in person. Each step careful and measured, Aro padded to her bedside, taking care to avoid creaky boards.

The girl was apparently a light sleeper. As soon as his watery shadow covered her bed she bolted up and stared at him disbelievingly. For a few moments she opened and shut her mouth in a convincing impresison of a goldfish, and then she found her tongue.

"Aro?" she slurred, wrapping the covers around herself like a fluffy shield.

"Heavens, no. You, my dear, are dreaming," he said. Humans were ridiculous creatures and that meant that this equally ridiculous ploy could work.

Isabella pinched herself hard.

"No, I'm not," she said.

Aro shrugged apologetically. "It was worth a try."

She swept dark, wavy hair—Aro suspected that sleep had ruffled it, and found the idea strangely adorable—out of her face.

"Are you going to kill me?" she wavered.

"No."

"Then why are you here?"

"To see whether young Edward has fulfilled his promise." That was true enough. No reason to tell her about his sudden need to study her. He imagined that would unnerve the girl.

"He hasn't. Not yet. Obviously." Bella gestured to herself, clumsily extracting one hand from the folds of her duvet. Aro's eyes lingered on the fear widening her eyes, the frantic rise and fall of her chest. Her little human reactions were so interesting that he'd forgive the insolence in her tone.

"My, my. The pair of you are in _trouble_," he purred, taking care to make the word sound like a threat and a titillating promise. He loved watching mortals interpret the ambiguous.

"Don't look at me, I wanted to be turned months ago," she said defensively.

Aro had assumed as much from his viewing of Edward's thoughts. Still, this game was entertaining. "Ah, so it is your paramour who is reluctant. Why would that be?"

"Something about souls," Bella said. Her voice betrayed a little impatience a hint of laughter. She found the idea of damnation funny apparently.

Aro arched his eyebrows playfully. "Oh?"

"I can't discuss theology at two in the morning. I have my limits," she said, grinning unabashedly.

"Hm. You are very willing to… ah… shove your beloved under the proverbial bus, it seems." He found that small disloyalty delightful. Mates were usually so mindlessly committed to each other.

"No! I don't want you to kill him either," she said sharply. Her arms crossed over her chest quickly, the covers falling off her shoulders.

"What is it that you want, Miss Swan?"

"First, you should leave. Second, you should go back to Italy. I'll report to you, or something, once the Cullens turn me. Deal?" Bella's voiced quivered, but she didn't break off eye contact in the dark.

"Goodness, no. I haven't maintained my position by listening to the empty promises of pretty girls."

Her face flushed with blood. Aro could feel its heat and smell it without seeing it.

"So what would it take to get you out of room and far away from Forks?" she demanded.

"Oh, much better! A negotiation," he cooed, clapping his hands together in the shadows. "The way I see it, my lovely Isabella, the only power you hold is over my curiosity. So, if you indulge me and let me turn you, I will leave your precious Cullens in peace."

He could hear her deliberating, and picked up on the handful of false starts, her tongue clicking against her teeth then stopping.

"So… you just want to bite me?" she said at last.

He grinned broadly. "You know how newborns are. Adult supervision required, as they say. I would be obligated to bring you back to Volterra."

Her fear came back. It smelled cold and metallic.

"No deal," she said. "Listen, I can't just vanish. Let me finish high school, graduate, all that. Then I can fake a university acceptance in Italy. Or a job. Or something. I'll leave with you in a few months. For a year. And then I can go back to Edward. Okay?"

Her words had come out mashed together and too fast. The pounding of her heart practically echoed in his ears.

Aro paused, pretending to consider her terms. He'd have his own way, but it was always more amusing when his victims thought that they retained some small scrap of control.

"_Okay_," he agreed, mocking her tone.

"So that's all it takes?" Bella asked, disbelieving.

He almost laughed. So this little girl was slightly smarter than the usual doomed human. Fascinating, really.

"There is a formality," he said. Hopefully the Cullens had not bothered to teach her much about vampire laws, or else she'd know that there were no other components to promises from the Volturi.

"We're talking about pinky swears, right?" she said cautiously.

He grabbed her right wrist, taking note of its warmth and fragility. Very gently, he scraped a fine line with his nail on the exposed flesh and pressed his closed lips over the beading blood. He noticed her shiver and rushed intake of breath with pleasure. And she tasted as exquisite as he expected.

"There. Signed in blood, my dear," he purred, returning her hand to a very flustered Bella. "Do not let me interrupt your night."

He vanished out the window, the distinctive, divine taste of her blood still smeared over his mouth without waiting to hear her answer.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Author's Note: Thank you guys for your reviews and follows! I was blown away by the number of readers the first chapter had. Your amazing response definitely encouraged me to update faster. **_

_**There are more notes for you at the bottom. Enjoy this chapter.**_

* * *

Bella woke up to pale sunlight splashing through her window and painting her room with unfamiliar colors. The promise of a pretty day was usually enough to make her stomach and mood plummet. _A psychosomatic reaction to a Cullen deficiency_, she'd labelled the symptoms. She'd thought it was pretty funny at the time, which was a few months ago.

Today, she felt fine.

As she stretched, she caught sight of her right wrist and the neat, straight line of a cut running perpendicular to it.

So much for a peaceful morning. Her brain kicked into overdrive, stress hormones pouring through her body as noticeably as icy water.

_Oh shit_.

_There was an evil vampire in my bedroom. He talked_ _to me_. _And then he _drank _from me. And he's not going anywhere until I come with him._

_Oh god oh god oh god. _

The smart thing to do was to start phoning the Cullens. Edward first, then Alice, then Carlisle, then maybe Rosalie. They needed to be warned about Aro. Technically, they were his subjects, and most definitely culpable for not following through on the promise made in Volterra. That and they were the only people who could realistically offer her any protection. Jacob and the pack looked intimidating, for sure, but she couldn't imagine them holding their ground against little Jane. Who was probably around here somewhere. Bella felt the sudden irrational urge to check her closet for lurking vampires. Aro didn't strike her as the type to travel without at least a few lethal backup plans.

Instead, she got out of bed on steady feet and padded into the bathroom. Calmly, she brushed her teeth and fiddled with the shower temperature. When she stepped in, the water was too hot, raising pink blotches on her skin, but she stood under the scalding stream until she adjusted. Small acts of endurance made her proud nowadays.

Keeping Aro a secret from the Cullens felt more than right, she mused as she shampooed her hair. It was necessary. Her entire resolve had hardened around the idea of silence. Which was completely bizarre and stupid and would probably get her killed, but…

But.

For the last year, her survival had depended on the Cullens. Without them around to save her from speeding cars and dangerous guys in alleyways and random nomads with sadistic streaks, she'd be dead. That kind of reliance scared her. She'd tried to justify it by reminding herself that she was only human. Nobody with a beating heart could have survived those situations.

But.

Then the Cullens had left, and she'd gone to pieces. Catatonic, morose, disgusting pieces. Bella couldn't stand the fact that the only thing that stood between her and being completely non-functional was one vampire and his family. During moments of painful honesty—like this one, accompanied by the citrus smell of body wash—she admitted that she didn't want immortality on those terms. Spending a thousand years worrying about the source of her sanity just leaving her on a _whim_… god, no.

This was basically a test. If she could fix this Aro situation on her own, without the Cullens' intervention, she could handle being a vampire. Otherwise… she flinched and supressed the thought, before grabbing a fluffy bathrobe off the hook.

"I'm not a weakling," she told her reflection through the steam.

The girl in the mirror didn't look convinced.

* * *

"'Morning, Charlie," Bella said, as she stirred two fluffy portions of scrambled eggs on the skillet. They were still a little runny for her taste. Two more minutes, she decided, eying them expertly.

"Good morning, Bells." He took the orange juice carton out of the fridge and emptied it into two mismatched glasses. The fuller one was placed at her end of the table.

"I was wondering… would you be really mad if I applied to school in Europe?" Might as well bite the bullet and ask, she figured.

"What has that boy put you up to this time?" her father said, settling his own glass onto the table with a disgruntled _thump_. Edward still got the contemptuous label of _that boy_, and it offended Bella a lot less than she thought it would have. He kind of deserved it.

"No, it's not like that," she said. "It's actually the opposite. I want to get away from my old life a little bit." _Old life_ was very accurate, given the circumstances.

Charlie's brow furrowed, and Bella could already imagine what he was thinking. She'd made it sound bad, like she was trying to flee from Edward, and put an ocean between them. _Damn it_. She'd only wanted to imply the usual collegiate escapism and a bit of small-town wanderlust.

"Bella, is there anything I should know?" he asked in his cop voice, each word carefully weighed and measured.

"_I promise_ it's not like that. If I wanted to break up with Edward, I'd do it. Running away to Paris is a little excessive," she reaffirmed, separating the eggs into two portions, and giving one plate to her father.

"Thank you." Charlie ate in silence for a few minutes, as his daughter tapped her sock-clad foot on the floor, waiting for his answer. Finally, he sighed and said, "You know that I'll help out with your tuition as much as I can, but Europe's not cheap."

She smiled, the expression brightened by relief. _Legitimate excuse for disappearance obtained,_ she thought, as though she'd just advanced a level in a video game.

"I'm holding out for a scholarship. Plus, this is just an idea not some kind of finalized plan," Bella said.

Charlie sighed. "You're growing up too fast," he complained, his voice blurred a little by paternal pride.

"I'll teach you how to use a webcam if I ever move out," she said fondly. Suddenly, the thought of living anywhere but here, her dad not within shouting distance, filled her with the desperate, pinprick sensation of drowning beneath dark water.

_I don't have time for this_, she told herself, cramming the last of her breakfast into her mouth and shoving her plate hastily into the sink.

* * *

The Forks library was admittedly humble, subsisting primarily on donations of books and time. Bella liked it anyway, although the shelves were spindly, most of the paperbacks were worn and the barcodes only scanned reluctantly. There was something reverent about the silence. Besides, she mistrusted shiny new books. On Thursday nights, nobody was there, making it the perfect place to study. Picking out her favorite table, she poured out a few notebooks and a list of essays to plan onto the scarred wooden surface.

Ten minutes later, a flicker of motion across the table from her caught her eye. She glanced up, ready to see Edward and smile. The subconscious part of her brain registered black and red, colors that the Cullens largely avoided. Her expression quickly became uncertain.

Of course it was Aro sitting in front of her. Some people didn't have the courtesy to limit themselves to nighttime visitations. Bella didn't scream or panic, but she thought her glare was pretty impressive, under the circumstances.

The vampire actually seemed a lot more _normal_ in this setting. Everybody looked a little dead under fluorescent lighting, so the delicate, powdery texture of his skin wasn't as creepy as usual. Losing the robes made him seem less like a vulture. Even his hair, tied back into a ponytail, was less sinister and more quaintly European.

_So much for the aura of menace, _Bella thought and smiled a little.

"I didn't expect to see you here. Are you stalking me?" she said. The playfulness in her voice was forced but she figured that it was better than terror.

"You are famous in certain circles for your love of books," he said cheerfully, examining the shelves around him with the air of a man finding a lost treasure. Obviously an act, Bella decided. He'd probably read more books than this library had in a month.

"Which circles, exactly?" she demanded.

"Edward's thoughts, mostly. The library in Volterra is magnificent." His voice was an invitation.

Bella bristled at how flippant he was being. Her eventual kidnapping by the Volturi was serious business, dammit. And he treated it like a casual invite to a tea party.

"I'm sure." She was getting good at sarcasm. Arizona hadn't had provided many opportunities to practise it.

"You will enjoy it," Aro promised in that same sinuous, purring voice he'd used last night. She couldn't decide whether she liked the implication of slippery seduction or found it repulsive.

"I already said yes to your deal. You don't need to be nice about it," she said.

"My dear, I have ulterior motives." He looked at her, the brown film of his contact lenses not quite hiding the eager, real red beneath.

Bella was painfully aware that she was enjoying herself. Being wanted was a novelty. Being wanted by a vampire ruler was a rush. She remembered wondering what his skin would feel like under her fingers and blushed.

"Edward mentioned that you were a collector," she said. It was a good reminder that he cared about her potential gift, not _her_.

"Precisely."

"I'm not looking forward to being collected."

"Being a Cullen is so much better, of course." Aro's grin was teasing, and not in a nice way.

"Well…yeah. They're like family," Bella countered. It sounded terrible when she said it out loud. She had parents, and grandparents and people she'd known for her entire life, and somehow the Cullens were more important to her.

"Ah yes, the parents and siblings of your dreams. No demands, only gifts and praise," he said speculatively.

"It's not wrong to want to belong somewhere."

"You will settle for _anywhere_, dearest," he said.

"Seriously? You're three thousand years old and the unofficial leader of all the vampires in the whole world and you're hanging around in a small-town library hurting my feelings? You're making eternity look bad," Bella hissed, offended. He claimed that he couldn't read her mind, but here he was listing all of her insecurities. It felt awful.

"We could _hang around_ somewhere slightly more interesting," he offered.

"That entire invitation screams _stranger danger_." Aro was exactly the kind of person children should be warned about, Bella thought.

"I have only the best of intentions," he continued. With some effort, he rearranged his expression into a mask of innocence.

So, an ancient, evil vampire just volunteered to… go somewhere with her. The right thing to do was run away screaming. Instead, she looked up at him carefully.

"Will you answer some of my questions?" she said. And she had so many. About mating, and relationships between vampires and humans, and what it would be like to live in Volterra, and what she'd tell her Cullens wouldn't know, and she didn't want to remain ignorant about her own future.

"But of course."

"Okay. This weekend. Port Angeles. The intersection that looks like this," she said, grabbing a piece of notepaper and roughly sketching two streets from memory. If she recalled correctly, there were coffee shops and tiny restaurants speckled all over the area. They could sit down and talk like normal people.

_Normal people on a date_, her brain added on, amused.

"Your gifts are clearly not restricted to one domain," Aro said, examining the drawing from all angles.

"Shush. Not all of us can be artistic geniuses," she said. Because she couldn't think of anywhere else this conversation could go, she quickly crammed her things into her schoolbag. When she looked up to say goodbye, there was nobody sitting at the table across from her.

* * *

_**Another Author's Note: I had a hard time understanding why Bella forgave Edward so quickly for leaving her in New Moon. You'd think that kind of thing would give a person trust issues. So, my Bella is having a hard time reconciling her feelings for the Cullens and the way they abandoned her. It's slightly OOC but it'll give her the motivation to get together with Aro eventually. Which is a good thing. Obviously :)**_

_**Anyway, thanks again for your feedback. **_


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